KBS's Beautiful Mind to end abruptly with 14th episode

KBS's medical mystery drama, Beautiful Minds, will be wrapping up before its schedule time. The Korean drama has been cut short to 14 episodes citing the degradation of the viewership graph.

On 23 July, a source from the broadcasting channel revealed that although the news of scrapping two episodes is confirmed, they have not told anything to the staffers or the actors yet. The source shared: "The other actors and staff were not in the know and were taken aback and unhappy to be suddenly confronted with such news. Although the viewership ratings thus far were low, it was being critically praised as a well-made medical drama, so they felt confident, but even that [confidence] dissolved once they heard that KBS was considering an episode reduction."

The source further disclosed that the airing channel, KBS, has been planning to culminate the drama as soon as possible. The staffer further stated that while the broadcasters wanted to cut short the show to 12 episode, however, with the writer's persistence they agreed to air two additional instalments. The insider added: "The whole time, KBS wanted 'Beautiful Mind' to end early, and after multiple rounds of discussion with the producers finally, they agreed on abbreviating the drama to 14 episodes from 16 episodes."

In addition, the unnamed source from the industry asserted that abruptly ending the drama is not at all a thoughtful action. It concluded: "We plan on informing the actors and staff by the end of the morning today (July 22). A lot of love was poured into this drama by actors and staff, and the reviews were not bad, so it's a shame that the drama seems to have been evaluated solely based on ratings."